New Jersey Worksheet

This New Jersey Worksheet helps students learn about the Garden State by reading a short nonfiction text and answering questions about it. Instead of sending children away to look up facts somewhere else, every answer on this New Jersey Worksheet is waiting inside the passage on page one. Students read about how the state was one of the first thirteen colonies, the year it joined the new country, the states and ocean along its borders, the farm crops that earned the state its nickname, the long sandy beaches and the dunes that the wind piles up, the wide forest of short pine trees in the south, the hills in the far northwest, the capital city of Trenton and the largest city of Newark.

The activity begins with a full-color painting of a quiet shore, where beach grass grows on the dunes and small waves roll onto the sand, and a 243-word passage written on grade level. Students then move to the question page, where they fill in the bubble beside the best answer for four multiple choice items and write a longer response using two details from the text. Because the reading and the questions sit on facing pages, children practice going back to the text for evidence, which is exactly what state reading assessments ask them to do. This 3rd grade states worksheet works as a first lesson on the state, as a geography warm-up, or as independent practice.

What’s Included

• A one-page nonfiction passage about the state, with a full-color illustration
• Four fill-in-the-bubble questions drawn from all three paragraphs
• One written response that asks for two details from the passage
• A complete answer key on the final page
• A printable PDF sized for standard letter paper

Three Reasons This Helps Kids

• Every answer is findable. Children learn that good research starts with reading carefully, not guessing.
• Evidence becomes a habit. The written response asks for two details, so students go back to the text instead of relying on memory.
• Geography words make sense in context. Words such as border, coast, dune and capital are each explained by the sentences around them.

Teacher and Parent Ideas

• Read the passage aloud together first, then let students reread it on their own before answering.
• Have children underline the sentence that proves each answer before they fill in a bubble.
• Pull out a United States map and find New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean around the state.
• Bring in blueberries or cranberries and talk about why farm country earned the Garden State nickname.

Related Resources

• New Jersey Word Search Worksheet
• New York Worksheet
• Pennsylvania Worksheet
• 50 States Song Video